CD - CRESCD 221
01: Don't Look Back In Anger
02: Step Out
03: Underneath The Sky
04: Cum On Feel The Noize
7" - CRE 221
01: Don't Look Back In Anger
02: Step Out
12" - CRE 221T
01: Don't Look Back In Anger
02: Step Out
03: Underneath The Sky
Cassette CRECS 221
01: Don't Look Back In Anger
02: Step Out
Release Date: February 19th 1996
Highest UK Singles Chart Position: 1
Don't Look Back In Anger is a song by Oasis, written by Noel Gallagher. Released as the fourth single on February 19th 1996 from their second album (What's The Story) Morning Glory? The song became the band's second single to reach number one in the UK single charts, where it also went platinum. Don't Look Back In Anger was also the first Oasis single to feature Noel on lead vocals instead of his brother, Liam.
Music video
The video for the song, directed by Nigel Dick, features Patrick Macnee, the actor who played John Steed in the 1960s television series The Avengers, apparently a favourite of the band. While filming the video, drummer Alan White met future wife Liz Atkins. They were married on August 13th 1997 at Studley Priory Hotel, Oxfordshire but later divorced.
History
Noel said of the song, "[It] reminds me of a cross between All The Young Dudes and summat the Beatles might've done." Of the character "Sally" referred to in the song he commented, "I don't actually know anybody called Sally. It's just a word that fitted, y'know, might as well throw a girl's name in there. It's gotta guarantee somebody a shag off a bird called Sally, hasn't it?". Noel claims that the character Lyla, from Oasis' 2005 single is the sister of Sally. In the interview on the DVD released with the special edition of Stop The Clocks, Noel also revealed that a girl approached him and asked him if Sally was the same girl as in The Stone Roses' track "Sally Cinnamon". Noel replied that he'd never thought of that, but thought it was good anyway.
Noel admits that certain lines from the song are lifted from John Lennon: "I got this tape in the United States that had apparently been burgled from the Dakota Hotel and someone had found these cassettes. Lennon was starting to record his memoirs on tape. He's going on about 'trying to start a revolution from me bed, because they said the brains I had went to my head.' I thought 'Thank you, I'll take that'!" "Revolution from me bed" most likely refers to Lennon's infamous bed-ins in 1969, both in the quote and in the song. The piano during the intro of the song highly resembles Lennon's Imagine. Like many other popular songs, the chord progression for both the verse and the chorus are based on the classical piece Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel. The songs only differ slightly at the end of each phrase. Gallagher also admits that he was under the influence of substances when he wrote the song, and to this day he claims he does not know what it means.
The song has become a favourite at Oasis' live performances. Noel encourages the crowd to sing along and often keeps quiet during the chorus, allowing the fans instead to sing along while he focuses on his guitar playing. The volume of crowd noise that usually descends on the chorus at concerts is easily audible on the rendition of Don't Look Back In Anger on Familiar to Millions. During the Dig Out Your Soul Tour the song has been played acoustically at a slower rate by Noel. Which surprised some fans, but it is still got a great reception and was sung by fans.
In a 2006 radio interview, Liam Gallagher said that it was he who came up with the line "so Sally can wait" as Noel was struggling with that particular line at the time. Noel confirms this on the bonus DVD, entitled Lock The Box, released with the Stop The Clocks retrospective album. In the interview with Colin Murray, Noel admits, "I was doing it in the sound check and the so Sally bit, I wasn't singing that...and he [Liam] says, 'Are you singing so Sally can wait?' and I said, 'No.' and he said, 'Well you should do.'"
Noel was so excited of the potential of the song when he first wrote it, he used an acoustic set to perform a work-in progress version, without the second verse and a few other slight lyrical differences to the finished version, at an Oasis concert at the Sheffield Arena on April 22nd 1995, saying before playing that he'd only written it the previous Tuesday (April 18th 1995) and that he didn't even have a title for it.
The single cover is an homage to the incident where Ringo Starr briefly left The Beatles during the recording of The White Album after the other three Beatles members successfully persuaded him to return, George Harrison decorated Ringo's drum kit in red, white, and blue flowers to show their appreciation.
The B-side Step Out was originally intended for the (What's The Story) Morning Glory? album but was taken off after Stevie Wonder requested 10% of the royalties as the chorus bore a similarity to his hit Uptight (Everything's Alright).
Oasis became the first act since The Jam to perform two songs on the same showing of Top Of The Pops, performing Don't Look Back In Anger, followed by their cover of Slade's Cum On Feel The Noize, also on the single.
Noel once admitted, on the Frank Skinner show, to telling Liam that he wanted to sing Wonderwall. On hearing Wonderwall, Liam demanded that he should sing it. Noel reluctantly agreed on the understanding that he could sing the next song on the album Don't Look Back In Anger.
The song became an anthem of solidarity after the Manchester terrorist attack. Three days after the suicide bomber killed twenty two people at the Manchester arena, people gathered in the city centre to observe a minute of silence in honor of the victims. Following the silence, the crowd started singing this tune in an act of camaraderie.